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Every second Saturday of the month, 4 pm - Divine Liturgy in English of Sunday - Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of the Holy Family, Duke Street, London W1K 5BQ. Followed by refreshments.Next Liturgy: Saturday 14th April - 3pm Great Vespers, 4pm Divine Liturgy for Sunday after Pascha (Pascha is on 8th April)

Wednesday, 22 January 2014

Geneva (Agenzia Fides) – To promote the participation of a delegation of the Christian minority in the negotiations for peace in Syria, which will be held at the Geneva 2 conference, which starts tomorrow, January 22: This is what the NGO "CitizenGO" asks for, which has launched an appeal and a petition which was signed, as reported to Fides, by Church leaders and other NGOs.

An appeal sent to Fides says: "The Christian community in the Middle Eastern country has been and is still probably the most affected religious group due to the current civil war, which sees the Islamist insurgents opposed to the regime of Bashar al-Assad. After nearly three years of conflict, about 2.6 million Syrians of Christian faith are still victims of persecution, violence and intimidation, which endanger the existence of the Christian community in Syria".

In this scenario, "the great world powers and the United Nations, that are starting peace negotiations between the warring factions, did not consider inviting any Christian minority representative (corresponding to about 12% of the Syrian population) to the peace conference in Geneva".
This is why "CitizenGo" and other NGOs support the action of the "Christian Coalition for Syria", which proposes an immediate end to hostilities and promotes the adoption of a democratic and respectful Constitution of the many ethnic and religious minorities living in the region. To defend the rights and freedoms of the Syrian Christians - says the text - "the delegates of the organization must be admitted to the peace negotiations in Geneva, which so far has always been denied to them".

The petition supports this participation, in the belief that "religious freedom is the first of the fundamental rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights", pointing out that in many proven cases "Syrian Christians are denied the basic right to freely profess their religious faith". (PA) (Agenzia Fides 21/01/2014)

Pray for the Unity of the Apostolic Churches

The Society of St John Chrysostom promotes greater appreciation of the spiritual, theological and liturgical traditions of Eastern Christendom, works and prays for the unity of the Churches of East and West, and encourages support for the Eastern Churches :

- the Byzantine and Oriental Catholic Churches in communion with the Apostolic See of Rome (especially in their contemporary calling to promote reconciliation and the recovery of union between Catholics and Orthodox)- the Orthodox Church- the Oriental Orthodox Churches and- the Church of the East.

In the United Kingdom and Europe the Society, founded in 1926, is a group of Catholics of the Latin and Eastern Churches, along with our friends in other traditions, promoting awareness and friendship in the Christian West for our fellow Christians of the East - through prayer and liturgy, conferences and lectures, pilgrimage and ecumenical encounters.